Lester Goes the Distance as Red Sox Finish Painful Series With 5-1 Win

In a game that was billed as a matchup of Aces, Jon Lester stood alone with a dominant complete game win over Tim Lincecum and the Giants.

Lester gave up a leadoff infield single in the first inning to Andres Torres. Torres stole second, stole third, and then scored on an Aubrey Huff groundout. Jon Lester would allow no more. The Giants only had five more baserunners the rest of the game as Lester mowed them down one-by-one, recording nine strikeouts.

Tim Lincecum, on the other hand, did not fair nearly as well. After allowing David Ortiz to send one into McCovey Cove in the first for his 16th homer of the year, Lincecum could not recover in the second. The Red Sox loaded the Bases for Jon Lester, who actually almost managed to take the opposing ace deep, hitting a sacrifice fly to the deepest part of the park. Marco Scutaro followed up by flipping a ball into the outfield to score a third run off Lincecum. After the Sox put up a fourth run in the third inning, the two-time Cy Young winner left the game for a pinch hitter with 79 pitches already thrown. Adrian Beltre would hit a pinch hit homer to extend the lead to 5-1 in the ninth.

Unfortunately for the Red Sox, the win came with a price. After Dustin Pedroia fractured his foot on Friday, and Clay Buchholz hurt his leg yesterday, Victor Martinez took a foul tip off his toe, and had to leave the game a few innings later. Oddly enough, the diagnosis has come back as a fractured thumb, and the catcher might not have to go on the DL.There's no news on how his toe may be fairing.

With the Tampa Bay Rays losing, the Sox have moved into sole possession of second place in the AL East, and first in the AL Wild Card race.